1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to software protection technique, and more specifically to a system and method of protecting software program from unlicensed usage.
2. Description of Related Art
Growing use of computers has resulted in extensive unlicensed use and pirated copying of computer software. This deprives the proprietor of the software from legitimate income from the sale of licenses. Thus, protection arrangements are necessary for software to prevent unlicensed use of commercial software.
Originally, there are three suggested mechanisms for the protection of software against unlicensed use. The first protection mechanism is simply a contract between the software proprietor and user where misuse creates rights for the recovery of damages or specific penalties for misuse. The second protection mechanism is the display of the licensee's name or other unique information on a CRT screen or printout which publicizes the terms of the license, and to some extent provides a deterrent against use by users other than a licensee. The third protection mechanism is applicable to cases where a program is to be run on a computer into which is incorporated a unique identification number. Thus, a software manufacturer may incorporate into its software product instructions that the product can only be employed with a computer bearing that unique identification number.
While the first two protection mechanisms offer some protection against the illegal resale of software products, they generally do not prevent the sharing of licensed products among users. Furthermore, with respect to the first protection mechanism, it may not be effective at all in countries where procedural or substantive law prevents the enforcement of a particular contract.
The second and third protection mechanisms suffer from the requirement that software distribution must be customized for each user, which may seem simple, but has proved to be logistically difficult in practice.
The third protection mechanism is perhaps the most effective one, and for computers which can read out identification numbers, it can be implemented in a standardized fashion. However, most computers do not contain built-in identifications which can be read by a program. In such cases, special purpose identification devices must be supplied. Unfortunately, there are no standards for such devices, and the use of a different identification device for each product is unwieldy and generally leads to incompatibility when more than one such product is to be used in the same computer. Also, simple hardware identification readouts are easy to defeat.